…ok, so there’s no chestnuts (yet) and no roasting (yet) but we can do the open fire, and THANK GOODNESS because it’s come to the rescue twice in as many months!

First, the power went off about a month or so ago in the high winds and although the water is heated by the boiler, which is fired by oil, the  pumps run on electricity so when it goes off we lose everything.

So the Bear missed out on a bath and it looked as if we were going to be without power for the duration.  My mum wasn’t affected so Simon beetled off over there armed with a flask or two so that there was hot water to make milk for Edward and perhaps a cup of coffee in the morning if it still wasn’t back on.

Edward couldn’t wait for his bedtime milk so I put some water in a pan and held it in the fire for a minute or so – I must confess to wondering how many other people had cooked/heated things in that fireplace over the 400+ years that this house has stood for; I felt very historic.

The second time our lovely open fire came to the rescue was on Monday and Tuesday this week.  I woke up and thought I could smell oil, but I was half asleep and decided that I was imagining it.  When we actually got up, the house was freezing and there was almost over-powering smell of oil pervading the house – the boiler was kaput!

We called Ruth (she’s our point of contact within the Drayton Estate) and she, in turn, got onto the plumber and the earliest he could come out was Tuesday afternoon.  So we lit the fire in the morning and had it blazing and crackling until at least 9pm that evening, followed by a repeat performance the next day.

What else has been happening – LOTS!

Edward has become partial to a bit of dog training, he’s a bit of a one-trick pony at the moment though.  If the dogs are being particularly noisy or boisterous behind the gate, Edward goes to the gate, throws his hand out and shouts, “SHUP!  Bad bob!”  Then he turns round looking pleased as punch and every inch as though he is control.

Crawling is pretty much a thing of the past now.  Since my birthday, when he finally decided that walking was definitely the way to go, he has become increasingly confident and even breaks into the odd run here and there.  Being up on two legs also opens the way for JUMPING and BOUNCING on the sofas amid much squealing and laughter.

In the absence of being able to articulate, “Will you get out of bed now and get up please!” Edward has developed his own unique way of communicating this wish.  He slides off our bed (where we’ve been sharing early morning cuddles, or more often where he’s been poking Simon in the eyes and up the nose whilst shouting, “DAAAD!!”) and goes and gets our slippers and throws them on the bed – impossible to argue with because it’s so CUTE!

Jack and Ellie are still going great-guns at school.  Ellie got her silver award the other week and is well on her way to a gold award.  Jack has his bronze award and has a few merits to go before he gets a silver one.  Ellie also took part in the ‘Christmas Cake’ lunchtime club and her cake is currently on display in school.

I won’t even bother you with the MADNESS that is Internet Explorer rendering issues – suffice to say that it really shouldn’t be so bloody difficult to line up four buttons on a web page!!

And so we rapidly face the dawn of Christmas Day and all the pre- and post-festivities that go with it.  I adore Christmas.  I still remember the excitement of Christmas Eve and going to my Grandma and Gramps’ in the evening, the journey home counting how many Christmas trees you could see in peoples’ windows.  The feeling of anticipation going downstairs and hoping that Father Christmas had left presents and the feeling of REALLY believing that he’d been in the house and stacked all the gifts under the tree.  It’s just magical.

So I kicked off Christmas gifts early for Simon by ‘giving’ him a little surprise present this morning – I arranged for a special crimbo message to be displayed on the HUGE Coca-Cola sign in Picadilly Circus.  If we were a child and dog free couple then I would have whisked him off down to London so that we could go and see it ‘in the real’ but it was just as special watching it over a live feed instead.

I am quite excited about the presents we are giving this year – some of them have been quite a long time in the ‘making’ and there were times when it seemed that we might not be able to pull them off, but they are here!  HURRAH!

The house is looking particularly festive this year I think and I bought a couple of special little ornaments for the tree.  I did have visions of Edward trashing the tree but he’s only been interested in jangling the two little bells, other than that he just likes to point at it and say, “Ee.”  Even the dogs have left it alone this year – amazing.

It’s the start of the Strictly Come Dancing semi-final in 5 minutes and I have cheesy dumplings to make, so I will leave you with some pictures -one of Cypher (that I took ages ago but only recently got round to working on), a couple of Edward (one with Jack whom is disgustingly photogenic) and a few festive ones, shot especially for Niki

No I’m not going to talk about the Spice Girl’s reunion and their new record or indeed Britney Spears new album, I mean that it is a new record amount of time that has elapsed since we updated this.

The good news is that although we haven’t posted here, Sarah has still been taking plenty of photos and will put them here soon!

Our reason/ excuse for being so slack is that we have been so busy setting up our company. An opportunity arose, the timing was right so we went for it. I finished and qualified my PC engineering course, the big kids are happily back at school, Edward is settling in to a nice routine, Sarah and I wanted to move on and build something together that will provide financial security for the family and Kirsty started her new business was kind enough to put her faith in us that we could deliver her business needs.

So here we are and Sirah Digital Ltd was born. I am typing this entry from within my shiny new office, affectionately known as the Shoffice as it is indeed a shed and a office! Albeit a brick built construction with a tiled pitched roof! Sarah lovingly painted it a nice shade of white last weekend and put together my desks (two at the bargain price of £49 for both! Ikea’s finest and not a hint of John Lewis here!) We need to sort out a few more plug sockets (just need to learn how to do that!) run a phone line and another network cable and we are all sorted! Anyone got a fax machine going begging! We got rid of our last one as the cost of new ink cartridge was more than the cost of replacing it!

Sarah has her office inside, I call it the ‘hoffice’ – home office! The whole set up seems to be working well. I have put in an order for some pictures for my office walls – Sarah is of course commissioned to shoot the images!

Both of us have been working late often not going to bed much before one in the morning and with Edward waking us up nice an early we could do with a restful holiday already! I can’t believe where the days go, it seems to race along much quicker than I was working for someone else! One of the frustrating things we have learnt over the last couple of weeks is how other business are so bad at doing what they say they’re going to do. I want to know why it is so hard to get someone to call you back when they say they will!

We are finding that the two ‘sides’ of the business are working well, Sarah is responsible for the design side of things and this very weekend is teaching herself web design! I am responsible for computer side of things but we are finding, as we expected that there is a cross over from a client point of view.

We placed our first order with a supplier yesterday and so far they seem to be really helpful so we can’t wait for a lorry load of bits to turn up on Tuesday. Then we can build the pcs and set up the other bits and get them ready for our first client!

We have few contacts lined up for new business and Sarah’s mum is turning out be a one-woman walking, talking advert! “So who looks after your computers then?” if one of her new phrases! Followed by “why don’t you have a look at this web site – www.sirahdigital.com” It is a temp site for the moment but Sarah is on the case!

I’ll leave the business things there for now…

Edward is walking everywhere at the moment! He even walked around Waitrose the other day! Slowly! We had to let a decrepit old couple past as they were going that little bit faster than us – I think it made their day!

Jack & Ellie are doing well, both stacking up the merits at school and doing really well. It is their birthday next weekend so they are excited about that. Jack went to a classmates birthday party last week, a disco in a nearby village hall – it didn’t finish until 10.30 so he felt very grown up. The only let down was that his girlfriend wasn’t able to come at the last minute.

We went to two firework displays last week. One in Sarah’s mum’s village of Old which was great, Sarah took some photos so I’m sure a couple will appear here later and then on Monday 5th our village had a display in the park down the road. Which although smaller was just as good! The kids watched the display and ‘hung out’ with their mates while the grown ups huddled around the fire and gossiped! (Not that there is much gossip in our little village!) Although it was very cold it was dry and the bonfires kept us warm! Edward loved the ‘crash bang boom’ of the fireworks and giggled all the way through!

A couple of weeks ago something technical happened with the people who ‘run’ the blog and a side effect of it was the loss of everything post-July.

The gaps in the blog will be filled in at some point (or maybe just added to the end) from the backup but I also felt that it was time for a new look to the Drayton Road Blog.  I hope you like it!

There isn’t a great deal of new news to tell that isn’t already common knowledge so until we make some (or make some up lol) here are lots of pictures for you to look at.

Sarah xx

Edward with his cousin, Madaline.

I think I prefer this in black and white…

This was taken on the 1st of September…

These on the 19th…

And these were taken today…

I would like to propose a toast to celebrate our ninth year of togetherness! So raise your glasses!
“To the bestest and most scrumptious wife in the whole wide world (or www!) I love you more and more everyday. Thank you for being my other half that makes me whole.

LYM SB xxxxx

It is official Edward Bear can climb! Today he managed to climb up, unaided, on to the pouffe which is in front of the tv. Once up, he made a dash for the freeview box and the tv! Coming down looked liked it wasn’t going to be quite so graceful so Dad was on hand to help him down – much to the Bear’s disgust!
This has rounded off a week of firsts for our little ‘fellows’. He had his MMR and final meningitis vaccinations on Tuesday 21st – no more ‘jabbing’ him until he is about 4 years old! Hooray! I hear him shout! This time he had two trophy plasters, one on each leg, to commemorate his ordeal.
The nurse was a staggering 40 minutes behind so we were waiting in the surgery for over 3/4 hour trying to keep the bear entertained! I wouldn’t mind so much but we had to wait over half an hour for the same nurse last time! So either she is as good at time keeping as us or there isn’t enough time being made between appointments to treat the kids. Judging by the comments in the waiting room from other parents and the highly apologetic introduction we got from the nurse some people seem to be getting a little cross. Which is a shame because the last thing a small child needs at this traumatic time is a cross parent and an anxious nurse. Surely just spreading out the appointments a little more would bring peace and harmony back to the surgery. “rant over”
Edward also experienced his first ‘bailing machine’ this week. I wasn’t there myself as Sarah had taken him to her mums for the afternoon (with the other kids). In the field these tractor things were gathering up the grass and then a big bailing machine came along and sucked up the grass and spewed out bails – he thought this was fab!
Jack and Ellie (J&E) has a brilliant time at PGL (Parents Get Lost) in Lincolnshire. It is just over an hour away – t’up norf. They arrived Saturday afternoon and came home Tuesday afternoon. J & E both made new friends and they are keeping in touch with them via email! They stayed in ‘dorms’ of 3 people which were made up of another brother / sister combo and one other ‘on their owny’.
They both did the same activities which included high rope adventures amongst the tree tops and abseiling, there were other things but I forget just now!
To finish the week off Sarah and J&E have gone to London with Yee for the last of their scheduled proms concerts. I write this whilst they are away. I am in fact listening to the very same concert live on BBC 4 (listening as I am in the kitchen and can’t see the tv!). It sounds like a great concert with one highlight being Prokofiev’s 5th. Before the concert they visited the Angel Islington tube station to ‘ride’ on the largest escalator in Western Europe (more statistics!).
So there we are – bank holiday tomorrow, the village church is holding their annual fund-raiser fete. We bought a book of raffle tickets a few weeks ago when they came knocking on the door – and donated some bottles of beer for the tombola (left over from the Christmas stash!) this week! Whether or not we go depends on the weather really and the parking! Only joking about the parking!

but it’s much too frail, the best kind of swing is a Tigger’s tail!”
Well that’s what Roo sings when he’s playing with Tigger and they discover that Tigger’s can’t climb trees, but it also makes Edward laugh when he’s on the swing in the park.
He’s much better now and is back to his normal self. We went to play on the swings for half an hour yesterday morning and took some snaps – I’m just thankful (and so should you be) that the shots don’t capture sound otherwise you too could hear me warbling the aforementioned lyrics!


Edward also has a new friend – his name is Edwid and was made especially for his birthday by Tamsin and Tabitha. He has a pink and white checked heart inside and is also microchipped so that if he gets lost and returned to the ‘Lost Department’ of the Bear Workshop they can send him back home; such a lovely idea.

There’s lots of other incidental stuff to ‘tell’ – like getting soaked in London, Jack’s first time at the Hard Rock Cafe, running through South Kensington for the last train home, queueing for hours outside Waterstones to collect our copies of Harry Potter. But it will have to wait as I currently have PURPLE hair dye on my hair that needs to come off now and me and Edward are off to my mum’s for the rest of the day to play with Madaline, Josh (aka Gok) and Paula (Simon is staying here to make the most of the peace and quiet ;-))

Edward Bear is poorly, he has been suffering for the last couple of days with a cough, runny nose and what must be a really sore throat. Although he isn’t himself at the moment he still manages to raise a smile when I pull a funny face for him, but then I feel guilty as the giggle sets off a coughing fit.

We took our cub to see the doctor today and after a thorough check up she decided he had a chest and ear infection so prescribed the antibiotics, amoxicillin. I wouldn’t say he likes it but it goes down a lot easier than the Tixylix! It smells of banana – which is nice as he loves banana – I only hope it doesn’t put him off the real thing!

Sarah has just put him bed but we both expect another disturbed night like yesterday where I think Sarah managed a whole 3 hours! I have to say I only fared slightly better!

Other than that there are a few other things to catch up on but I’ll save those until tomorrow – as I’m off to read HP and the deathly hallows – only another 400 pages to go! Sarah, Jack and Lynn have finished it already! So Ellie and I are playing catch up.

Emma bought Edward this GREAT t-shirt for his birthday – we think he looks very cool in it and Edward likes to fiddle with the three buttons that are on the side of the skull, anything with buttons or tags on is always a winner with him.

Most of you will recognise the next set of images – I chose them as, for me, they are the defining shots of each of his 12 months (give or take a week here and there…well you’ve got to be allowed a bit of artistic licence now and again!)

I’m intending to write more later with a garden update – late because it’s currently dry AND sunny and I’m off out to try and catch up with all the jobs that we haven’t been able to do because of the endless rain!

Sarah x

Edward you are one today (3rd July, that’s the 3rd of July, Aunty K). We hope you had a lovely day – you seemed to enjoy most of it, well not the jabs you had at the doctors today! You had 15 birthday cards today and a few telephone calls from people wishing you a happy birthday.

We opened your cards and had cake when we got back from the doctors and in the afternoon we went to Northampton to get a few special bits for you. Some lovely clothes, cuthbert the pull along caterpillar and a few bath time toys amongst others!

We can’t believe that you are one year old already. The last year has flown by. You are such a happy bear, even today having had an injection and having six teeth coming through you still spent most of the day smiling and laughing – you have really brightened up our lives this last year.

Edward happy birthday and we love you xxxxx

It very quickly became apparent that there were more than two teeth on the move!

A week ago Friday (15 June) I went to Gardeners’ World Live (GWL) at the NEC in Birmingham with my mum for the day and whilst I was there Simon discovered a top tooth in Edward’s mouth! Now teeth usually come through in a distinct order – bottom-front two, then the top-front two, followed by the two either side of the bottom ones and then the same on the top. Well upon closer inspection of Edward’s mouth you could see the top four teeth AND the next two bottom teeth all pushing through at the same time! And there we were, not so long ago, wondering if he’d still be 100% gummy on his 1st birthday.

Jack and Ellie went back with my mum to hers when she dropped me home after GWL so on Saturday we decided to go out and about and explore somewhere. Both being fans of Gardeners’ World past and present, we felt it was about time to go and visit the home and GW gardens of the late, great Geoff Hamilton – Barnsdale Gardens in Rutland.

Rutland is only 30 miles up the road and across the border into Leicestershire and we opted to go the pretty route rather than across and up the A1. The villages are quaint, the roads twisty-turny (great for bikes!) and the countryside glorious – even in the thunderstorm that crashed and banged around us half way there.

The gardens…what can I say about the gardens…they are just GLORIOUS. To have gardens on that scale would be our idea of heaven. The scent of roses and rainbows of colour bombard the senses and every corner turned reveals previously hidden wonders. The Versailles Borders and the Cottage Garden are among our favourites.

We got a little wet but going when the weather forecast was so dire did prove to have its advantages in as much as most other people stayed away, so I think we saw one person very briefly in the whole time of our wanderings round – it was like having the whole place to ourselves; it is just wonderful.

Before Edward arrived we bought a sling for him to go in so that it would leave our arms and hands free if he wanted to be held. We decided against the bog-standard slings (well what else did you expect!?) and went for a ‘Freedom Ring Sling’. Basically it’s just a l-o-n-g piece of material that has a pair of hefty silver rings sewn onto one end; you thread the material though the rings and ‘sling’ it over your shoulder and across your front like a sash, create a ‘pouch’ and put the baby in it. Sounds easy huh……it’s only taken us the best part of a year to actually get it right LOL!

However, it meant that Edward could be carried around some of Barnsdale when he got fed up with being in the pushchair, and that our arms didn’t feel like lead with carrying him. It’s not easy shooting the borders with one hand whilst trying to stop Edward pushing the buttons with the other, so I handed the Canon over to Simon and he played photographer for some of the day which means there is a rare shot of me with Edward!

Blue Hostas…

Simon pondering in the Cottage Garden…

Metal Rose…

Part of the Versailles Borders…

Simon and Edward sheltering from the rain…

Honeysuckle…(Simon shot this one)

Me and Edward…(another ‘Shot by Simon’)

That Sunday we had been conscripted to help out at the Old Village Fete – me and mum (she’s the new Parish Council Chairman btw) were running the cake stand Jack and Ellie played with their friends from Old and harassed Tony and Luigi (a work colleague) for money for drinks and burgers and the like. Simon and Edward dashed off to the computer fair in Kettering and were back in Old in time for the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight fly-past that had been booked for the afternoon.

The BBMF is a Lancaster Bomber, a Hurricane and a Spitfire and seeing them fly over incredibly low and loud is one of the best sights and sounds. These are the planes that we saw at Duxford when we went to the Battle of Britain Memorial Day (I’ll post some pictures of that when I’ve got round to processing all of them) on the day MIL and David arrived en route to the Arsenal game from Scotland.

That was last weekend, this weekend just gone was a much more sedate affair. Saturday….we did not much! I played Lego Star Wars on the XBox (it’s a great game), played with The Cub and cleaned the carpets with our new carpet cleaner – it’s one of the most satisfying things! The colour of the water is disgusting which makes it all the MORE satisfying and the carpets looked brighter and smelt much nicer. Ok so they won’t stay clean for long but doing it once a month should keep on top of things and Edward won’t end up with quite such grubby knees!

Sunday…a trip to Ikea in Milton Keynes (the Ikea you all saw just up the road is a warehouse and not a store) to get Edward a toy box for all his toys and a heavy-duty rug to put outside that he can sit and crawl around on. Well, the toy box was out of stock but we did get him a great rug, I think he’s gonna have to fight the dogs for a space on it LOL.

Whilst we did all that the kids were with Mum and Tony again – this weekend was the Festival of Speed at Goodwood so they were all up at 5am on Saturday to make good time down to Chichester. Jack and Ellie got up close and personal with Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton’s test driver and went into the MacLaren VIP bit. I think that really did it for them as they were hob-nobbing with the MacLaren peeps and could touch the car whilst ‘the commoners’ had to stay behind the ropes and just drool – “it’s handy having contacts in the trade,” Jack said.

The wasp man came out today so we are wasp free again and now it’s just fingers crossed for nice weather on Saturday!

Sarah x